Studies have shown that living in poverty is associated with significantly lower health status and perceived well-being.(1) Today, over 50 percent of American families living in poverty are headed by women, and the majority of children living in poverty live with their single-parent mothers.(2) It is well documented that poor women and children both perceive their health to be poorer and indeed have higher rates of morbidity and mortality than their non-poor counterparts.(3-8) For single-parent mothers who are dependent on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), opportunities to escape living in poverty are difficult and rare; thus, so too are their chances of improving their health. Changes have occurred at both the federal and state level in the AFDC program, with the thrust of the changes intending to move heads of households 'from welfare to work' through the federally mandated Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program. Such changes implicitly have the potential either to be supportive or non-supportive of improving the health of this population of women. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe the health outcomes of women who are participating in welfare-to-work programs through JOBS. Specifically, I am interested in the difference in health status outcomes between women participating in either a job-focused or a holistic welfare-to-work program--including the psychosocial and physical aspects of health. These structures within the welfare system have the potential to be either supporting or non-supporting for women, greatly influence their ability to adjust to their new roles as working mothers, and may affect various dimensions of their health. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to compare the global health, symptoms of stress and illness, functional status, and healthcare resource utilization of women participating in a job-focused welfare-to-work program and those participating in a holistic-based welfare-to-work program. By evaluating the impact of public policies on the lived experiences of women, therapeutic measures directed at the policy level can be developed, researched, and implemented for the purpose of enhancing the health of this segment of the nation's population. The outcomes of this research are expected to assist policy makers in developing legislation that could prove more effective in improving the health of poor women.